So, I haven't bothered posting to this journal in a very long time. For some reason, the idea of taking the time to describe what's going on at the moment just seems like a waste most of the time. I suppose I'm just not a natural journalist. Also, I find my life to be pretty plebeian. Possibly it's a case of familiarity breeding contempt?
Regardless, I need to take a short break from work, which has gone from "extreme boredom with nothing to do" to "12 hour days with an hour commute each way". My poor brain is pretty tired, and I have to make this code work. It's better than boredom (barely), but it's still pretty annoying. Why don't I ever get placed on a job with plenty of time and a realistic budget? WHY DAMN YOU?!?
In any case, life has been busy lately. Things on my plate right now -
1) Running Gun Productions - Big things are afoot, and I am of course involved in all of them, although only tangentially for a few projects. I could stand to spend more hours a week on this stuff though.
2) Spirit of the Century - This one is sadly languishing a bit, but my good friend dasquish and I are planning to run a series of one shots of Spirit of the Century for a large group of friends. We had 19 people get together to make characters at the same time, and we'll be running a series of one-shot games that people will be signing up for on a case by case basis. Anticipation is high, but I don't have everyone's characters back yet, and I haven't had time to get together with Kevin and do the serious planning that we need to do.
3) Working on my house - The GF and I bought a house (our first) in June, and it needs work. Work that I have been lax in getting to, since I'd much rather do things I enjoy once I get home than sand drywall. It really needs to get done though. Especially since I don't want to be painting with the windows closed, and it'll be too cold to open them very soon.
I'm sure there's more, but I'm blanking for the moment. The social calendar is pretty full right now, what with RenFaire season and board gaming and the Sunday DnD game and Friday Night Dinners every other week and several other RPGs I'm in and BSO season tickets and and and and......
This week is the final week of work here in lovely Madison, Wi. It will be good to be home, but I have to admit that I've gotten very comfortable here over the last two months, and there are people and places that I will miss once I leave. Perhaps a change order or two will bring me back out for a short trip, and I'll get to visit Indigo (local coffee shop) and my friends at the Madison West/Middleton Residence Inn.
In other news, I have finally decided to become more proactive about scheduling games. I've been chomping at the bit to try some of the new indie RPGs I've purchased, and I've gone ahead and scheduled a game for this Saturday night at my place. It's a small group, because the game (My Life With Master) only warrants a small number of players. I played in a session of the game with dazaharia at GenCon 2006, but the person running it sort of butchered the rules, so I'm excited to do it right. I'm a bit apprehensive about it though; the game really requires a certain amount of thinking on my feet, as everything is unscripted. There is no planning ahead, everything is created in consensus with the players so if the people in the game aren't proactive enough it could be a very unrewarding experience for everyone. I think the group will be alright, but I'm still a bit nervous. Fingers crossed!
In other news, deathquaker has posted a meme I can really get behind: The Book Meme. And no, I've never heard of "LibraryThing", but I intend to research it.
English Genius
You scored 100% Beginner, 100% Intermediate, 100% Advanced, and 86% Expert!
You did so extremely well, even I can't find a word to describe your excellence! You have the uncommon intelligence necessary to understand things that most people don't. You have an extensive vocabulary, and you're not afraid to use it properly! Way to go!
Thank you so much for taking my test. I hope you enjoyed it!
For the complete Answer Key, visit my blog: http://shortredhead78.blogspot.com/.
My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:
Well, at least now I know that awhile is actually an adverb, and that it's an accepted part of spoken and written English. Who knew? Well, besides Strunk and White...
This is a reposting from a friend's comment page, but I meant to do this ages ago and didn't. So here it is, my review(critique!?!) of 300.
I saw 300 while I was hanging out in NYC this last week, and I have to throw out a little dissension here. Maybe it was because I saw the movie without any friends to lend me energy while watching, but about 2/3rds of the way in I just wanted it to be over, I was so sick of it. I loved the way the movie was shot. I really enjoyed the over the top aspects of a lot of it, but at the same time I was incredibly irritated by what I saw as inappropriate additions to the story that aren't in the trade by Frank Miller, as well as items that make no sense in the historical context (I know it's fiction!).
So I suppose my real complaint is that they cranked the drama knob up so high that the real drama got lost in the bluster. It did alot of things very well, and I loved the look, alot of the feel, and the fighting was AMAZING. Some of the best fight scenes ever in a war movie. Unfortunately, the extra material they added to pad the movie out (the comic is VERY short) didn't work for me. And apparently everyone in Persia is either horrible disfigured, or has so many piercings that they generate a magnetic field just by walking.
A gentleman I met in NYC is planning to run a nWoD game, with the intention of starting all characters off as regular people and transitioning through roleplaying into the various types of splat creatures. I believe he's only going to include Mage, Vampire, and Werewolf, but if anyone is really feening for some Prometheus (is anyone!?!) I suppose you could try to convince him. He wants to run it live, but I suspect it will turn into an online game, so if anyone I know is interested (I know I've mentioned this fellow to several of you before) check out my Friends Page (he's Coridan) and see what he's talking about.
It seems like the general level of Mythos fancraft is increasing in both quantity and quality. Take for instance, this little gem.
Incredibly creepy and well done. I recommend really paying attention. I'll be visiting the creator's site at some point soon.
In other news, I'm planning to see 300 tonight. I'm sure my lovely SO is not too interested in seeing it, so a quite evening in NYC before a long workday will be a great time to do so.
It's rare that I can't get to sleep, but for some reason I can't get this damned job off of my mind long enough to get some much needed rest. On the plus side, I just made alot of important phone calls that I'd been putting off, mostly due to sleeping way too late in the day to make them.
On the plus side, the head of the NY SPL office just sent me a joke that I thought was pretty funny. Stop me if you've already heard it.
I have to admit, this is pretty much spot on. I've grown to really like this town, I can easily imagine moving here at some point in the future. Such a cool city.
As I almost completely expected, there have been last minute changes to the moving day! My landlord has apparently decided that HE is moving this weekend (probably due to his ex-wife's schedule), so I can't move in yet. He wanted me to move on Monday...HAH. I don't think so. So we will be pushing the move back to the 10th, also a Saturday, but 7 days later than the expected day. As always, any help is welcome. Maybe the beautiful and strong-backed destertale can make it now? Who can say?
Barring sudden last minute changes, we are planning to move this Saturday the 3rd of February. We are only moving from the 3rd floor to the 1st floor of the same house, so there will be no truck, no loading and unloading, just a bunch of trips up and down the stairs to move boxes and furniture. There may also be a few people busily throwing our crap into bags and boxes, depending on how well Jen is able to get the rest of our stuff packed this week with her very little free time. Moving time should be starting around 2PM, as Jen has to work in the morning and I would like a few hours of sleep between when the train deposits me in MD and when I have to start moving boxes. We will of course be providing food and drink for anyone who ventures out to help us. And of course, if anything changes in the next week there will be a follow up email.
Thanks to everyone who can come out and help, we appreciate everyone who can!
KPFS is a sweet little game that my friend and future roommate has expressed interest in running. Sadly for me, he hasn't even bought the book yet, which to me betrays a sad, pitiful lack of desire to either kill puppies or get on the good side of Satan. I mean, it's almost free. Practically. I've read the whole damned thing now, because I've been waiting, and so now I have to run it. If anyone is interested, grab a pet and give me a ring, just not my pets; I have dibs.
If that shit doesn't make you crack a smile, then your sense of humor is far too nice and needs to be taken into a back alley and roughed up a bit. Maybe knee-capped.
I was rediscovering the joys of a great gaming website called "Places To Go, People To Be", when I came across an article by Steve Darlington entitled "Dare To Be Stupid". I've never seen a more succinct description of my chosen, favorite gaming style. I love to do the brave, stupid, daring, it'll never work thing in a role-playing game. Even when it pisses the other gamers in the group off horribly (you know who you are, all of you!) I love to leap into the fray, totally unprepared, totally without a real plan beyond "I should do this thing, that would be cool". I find that doing things like that always create more problems, more adversity for the characters; to that I shout "Great!". All the more reason to be engaged with what's happening, all the more reason to care about the outcome, all the more reason to think of the clever solution. Nothing is more boring to me than everyone around the table playing the meta-game, comparing stats to see who has the best chance at making that socialize roll, or picking that lock. My question is rarely "who's best at it?", it's "who's in front of the door right now?" "Who thought of the idea?" "Who's character is most motivated to do it?" Let's do it! Let the dice fall as they may, no matter what happens if people aren't fixated on the "winning" aspect it doesn't matter, it's still fun.
That turned into more of a rant than I planned. I'll leave it though, I think it speaks for me well.
Some wise soul out there on the intarwebs saw fit to post a bad rip of The Star Wars Holiday Special to YouTube. I never saw this POS when it originally came out (too blissfully young and ignorant, perhaps?), and without the buffer of nostalgia that makes drek like He-Man and Voltron almost palatable it's incredibly painful to endure. The extended scene with "Chewbacca's family" grunting and masticating is nauseating. Did Chewbacca's dad have a stroke? He might want to see a vet. 25 years ago, someone was very proud to pull these special effects together for a TV show, but now......
*EDIT* - Sorry folks, the George Lucas gestapo has had the video removed. Too late to scar yourselves if you haven't already. I propose a fun and exciting horribly drunk/drugged out party at Nathan and Jenesta's house to screen his VHS copy.
I do remember the Ewok special that came on years ago. I don't have any recollection as to my opinion back then, but considering my current hatred of Ewoks, any future viewing is bound to be terrible.
Speaking of bad shows from the past, Adult Swim has apparently gotten their hands on the Voltron back stock. They have a bunch of episodes posted over at The Fix, but I haven't found the cojones to watch any of it yet. If I never click the link, maybe I'll be able to avoid destroying another piece of bliss from my childhood.
As though my Meyers-Briggs test results have ever been in doubt...in fact, I'm pretty sure I've seen those questions before. I'm thinking it's the standard MB test, with a different slant on the answers. Entertaining though.
*Edit* - I'm rereading the stuff I just pasted, and the geek/nerd difference was exactly spot on. I can't think how many times I've debated that very point with people. Sheesh.
Talked to another human being lately? I'm serious. You value knowledge above ALL else. You love new ideas, and become very excited over abstractions and theories. The fact that nobody else cares still hasn't become apparent to you...
Nerd's a great word to describe you, and I seriously couldn't care less about the different definitions of the word and why you're actually more of a geek than a nerd. Don't pretend you weren't thinking that. You want every single miniscule fact and theory to be presented correctly.
Critical? Sarcastic? Cynical? Pessimistic? Just a few words to describe you when you're at your very best...*cough* Sorry, I mean worst. Picking up the dudes or dudettes isn't something you find easy, but don't worry too much about it. You can blame it on your personality type now.
On top of all this, you're shy. Nice one, wench. No wonder you're on OKCupid! Now, quickly go and delete everything about "theoretical questions" from your profile page. As long as nobody tries to start a conversation with you, just MAYBE you'll now have a chance of picking up a date. But don't get your hopes up.
I am interested though. If a tree fell over in a forest, would it really make a sound?
*****************
If you want to learn more about your personality type in a slightly less negative way, check out this.
I'll be attending two concerts in the very near future, and since I love to attend them in groups, I'm sending out an all points bulletin to everyone who reads my blog (very tiny number, I know).
Concert #1 - Kaki King
Kaki King is an accomplished guitarist, who specializes in fingerpicking and slap guitar. I've loved her for years, and seen her 3 or 4 times now. She is coming to Baltimore, but I'll be in NYC that day so I'll be seeing her at Jammin Java on the 9th of December. As of right now, I will be going with my lovely girlfriend and 2 others. It's open seating, so any size group works great if we get there early.
Concert #2 - Jonathan Coulton
Anyone who reads my blog (precious few of you that there are) should know Jonathan Coulton, but if you don't check out his website. He's about as nerdcore as MC Frontalot, with tunes like Skullcrusher Mountain you just can't go wrong. He's playing at Jammin Java's, just like Kaki, on the 17th of December. As of right now, the only confirmed people are myself and 1 friend, but since seating is open the more the merrier. He's co-headlining with someone I've never heard of, but for a ticket price of $12 any bitching you might do enters into tiny violin territory.
So by all means, if you're interested in going, shoot me an email or give me a call. We'll hook up and whatnot.
This evening at work the funniest damned thing happened. My contact at the Supreme Court, we'll call him Greg (since that's his name), made a little oopsy that I thought was hilarious, and hopefully he can laugh at tomorrow when everything gets fixed up.
We were heading into the elevator up on the 16th(!) floor when I hear Greg say something to the effect of "Oh crap!" or "Shit!" or something of the like, followed closely by the "klink" of something metallic hitting the floor, then slipping between the elevator car and the floor, then clinking several more times on the way to the ground, somewhere in the darkness. He then says something else like "I can't believe I just dropped the master key ring for the whole Supreme Court down the elevator shaft!" I had to laugh, but he wasn't.
We tried getting some help from the maintenance staff, but everyone with any abilities apparently works the day shift. Poor Greg is gonna head into the site around 7:30 to try to get the keys out of the shaft before the day gets busy. Hopefully he'll be laughing about it when I see him tomorrow. I know I will be.
I've lived about 6 weeks in NYC now, and while I really like a lot of things about the city, there's nothing there that I care about at this point in time. My girlfriend, my home, my computer, my cats, all live here in B-more, and that makes it a better place to be right now. I'm at the end of a week back home, and it's been pretty swell. I took half the week off, puttered around the house, vegged out, saw friends, ate lots of good food, and most importantly, got to spend some time with Jen. The connection we are able to effortlessly create after spending some time together is always amazing.
High points of the week:
- Tuesday I took off of work and spent it with Jen; we walked down to the polls together, then had lunch and generally just hung out. The election prompted a long discussion about politics and our system of government, and all was well. Also got to hang with Pookah for a bit, which I haven't done much of recently, and it was good.
- Friday I took a half day and hung out at the harbor with Lauren for a bit. It was fun and relaxing, and with the amazing weather it was a great time to chill out down there.
- Saturday I did nothing but sit around the apartment naked, reading tons and tons of stuff on the internet. Topics included a bunch of RPG design theory over at The Forge and a bunch of other stuff. Also, I got 100% completion in Lego Star Wars II - hooray me!
Today is the Mage game, and I'm looking forward to it. Life is good.
I head back to NYC again tomorrow; depending on how much I can get done this week, I may or may not be heading up for the 3 days before Thanksgiving. After that, I'll have another 3 weeks or so up there, hopefully finishing everything up right around Christmas. The influx of cash will definitely be helpful to me, especially around this time of year when I'm expected to both deal with my debts AND buy frivolous gifts for everyone around me. Woot!
My job can be a real pain in the ass sometimes, but there are times it affords me opportunities I wouldn't normally get. This week, Monday morning, one of the VPs came into my office and asked me, "Can you go to New York City this week? I need someone smart who can troubleshoot to go deal with some problems up there." So, 5 hours later, I was on a train to a city I've never really visited.
The job is somewhat of a pain, in the vein of "Never properly finished, little stuff to do EVERYWHERE that will take far too long to fix", but the customer is happy with our progress and things are going well in that regard. I'll be going up again on Tuesday and staying for another week. After that, who knows? Not I, sir. Not I.
Finally seeing NYC was pretty cool. The first ride on the subway was pretty daunting (those maps are dense), but I managed. I got to eat on the company dime in nice restaurants in Times Square. I got to walk the filthy streets at 1AM going 40 blocks back to my hotel room. I got to hang out with a friend I haven't seen in over a year. I got to really get some good field experience troubleshooting issues I've been training for recently. I got really sick eating crappy chicken in a dive in Koreatown. (Chicken Gristle Torture FTL)
Sadly, my beloved's grandfather died on Thursday, so she has flown off to Michigan for the funeral. This means that I will barely see her before I head back to New York. Perhaps I can find a cheap-ish way to get her up to NYC with me; after all, the hotel room IS being paid for....
It's amazing just how much sitting still for most of one weekend can leave me so utterly drained. Jen and I have just finished up the Shambhala Level V weekend, and it was exhilarating, and exhausting, and enlightening, and boring, and inspirational, and difficult, and easy, and a lot of other things.
To be more accurate, we've just completed the fifth and final level of the Heart of Warriorship teachings in the Shambhala tradition. The crux of the practice is meditation. The meditation techniques they teach bring you up from the deepest Mindfulness practice to the most open Awareness practice, and the level V "no-technique" was perhaps the hardest of them all - meditating without a stable object of meditation to come back and no anticipation to keep the mind sated is very, very difficult. I think it's understandable that I'm a little worn out.
This being the final level of Warrior training, there was recap, and a walk in the woods, a feast, a touching ceremony as each of us were given our pins and certificates, sharing, toasts, bawdy singing. For a person who is worn out by even moderate socialization, this was a long, but wonderful weekend.
Of course, the meditation is just a tool, a tool designed to allow a person to reach out to themselves, and then by extension to reach others. We discussed some of the elements and ramifications of that as well, recapping things from all five of the levels and bringing them together into profound meaning. But taking those tools into the world, that's the hard part.
And to anyone who's curious, there is open meditation and free meditation instruction on Sunday mornings and Thursday nights, and the next Level I will most likely be in September. And I'll be more than happy to offer to aid that level, so that you'd have a friendly face. If you've ever been curious about Eastern teachings, but would like a philosophy better than a religion, this is a good thing to check out.
I've committed to this meme, having enjoyed the fruits of it, so I suppose I'd better get to it for anyone who's interested:
Leave your name, and .. 1. I'll respond with something random about you 2. I'll challenge you to try something 3. I'll pick a colour that I associate with you 4. I'll tell you something I like about you 5. I'll tell you my first/clearest memory of you 6. I'll tell you what animal you remind me of 7. I'll ask you something I've always wanted to ask you 8. I'll tell you what song(s) reminds me of you (no complaining if it's a sucky song.). 9. If I do this for you, you must post this on yours.
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dasquish and I are planning to run a series of one shots of Spirit of the Century for a large group of friends. We had 19 people get together to make characters at the same time, and we'll be running a series of one-shot games that people will be signing up for on a case by case basis. Anticipation is high, but I don't have everyone's characters back yet, and I haven't had time to get together with Kevin and do the serious planning that we need to do.
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tired
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Ravenous![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/charitycam/goth_boy/gloomy.gif){kind=small}
pessimistic![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/charitycam/goth_boy/happy.gif){kind=small}
calm![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/charitycam/goth_boy/awake.gif){kind=small}
awake - barely
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aggravated![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/charitycam/goth_boy/working.gif){kind=small}
accomplished